Something Worth Hoping For
by butterfly-pieces
Summary: The death of Anna leaves behind an empty space for Lisa and, as the Visitor prepares to leave, Lisa tries to take hope with her but finds that she can't – not alone.


No one thought it would end – not with a bang, but with a whimper, as Lisa had read in a poem once – but end it did, and Lisa remembers bangs _and _whimpers, as the people she grew to love sacrificed everything to bring Anna down.

Earth poetry has a truth to it _and _meaning, she soon learned, and as Visitors were allowed – and assisted by Earth's military – to gather their dead – Lisa tries kept her chin up and ignores the whispers around her.

Visitors are no longer welcome on Earth – she doesn't blame them – and this is the last chance she has to feel the the wind on her face, to smell the air's many scents, even the pollution itself which is often faint to most humans who scarcely notice such things.

"What will you do now?" Lars stands beside her, one of the few soldiers left from Project Ares – they had losses of their own, too, and it makes Lisa wonder if he means the question to himself, too.

"We shall leave. Find a home, uninhabited, if we can. With the end of my mother's reign, I think it's best," she clears her throat, ignores the clenching in her heart, reminds herself she _is_ queen now and she _can_do this.

She promised him she would.

She owes him that much.

"You can always visit," the older man smirks and Lisa turns her head to him, eyebrow quirked. In spite of his dislike of her kind, the man had taken a protective instinct towards her in the end. In the beginning, he pushed her, hard, to prove herself and stop allowing Anna to step on her as she did on everything else. In the end, it worked, but it had been too late for some.

_Joshua_...

She looks away, remembering her promise. "Your government wouldn't agree to that...not this soon, at least," she amends, smiling softly. "I will miss Earth. I've learned so much here."

"Even gained a soul?"

She recoils at the memory of her mother's hunt for the human soul – namely because Joshua had been so close to finding it...she often thought because _he _had one.

He was always the best of them.

He died for them – for her – for all of them.

And where it is they say soul goes when the body dies?

Heaven.

She hopes that part of their mythology is true.

She feels better thinking him in a better place, even if none of them can follow.

"Perhaps," she forces the smile that plays on her lips and turns to face him, extending her hand for him to take. "I have to go back to the ship now. The others will finish without me. I've paid my respects...I wish there was more I could do." How many times could she apologize? "If there's anything we can do...for them..."

Lars takes her hand, shakes it, but doesn't let go, covering it with his other hand. "You did fine, kid," his smile is warm, which is a strange look for him, wrinkling his face with age. "Wish I could do something for you."

Her mouth gapes for a moment before she closes it, smile tight with the emotion her mother sought so hard to remove. "You did a great thing for all of us, Lars. You gave us a chance to save ourselves when killing us all would've been easiest."

It had been a plan to eliminate all Visitors – one that wouldn't discriminate on whom it targeted – and Lars had the chance to press the button, but he didn't, waiting until the last possible moment and giving them all – Lisa, Joshua, Erica, Kyle, Jack – a chance to end it before he ended it his way.

"Yeah, well," he shrugs, letting go of her hand and putting his in his pockets, "I figured the doc was right about one thing."

She blinks at his mention of Joshua, but lets him finish.

"You're worth holding on to a little hope for. You're different than them and, maybe, now, you lizards will be able to find a better way to exist...one that doesn't include genocide." The fact that he can smile while saying things like that always makes Lisa question his mental health but she's too touched – too grateful – to make any remark about it.

"Thank you," she crosses her arms, wishes she could cry, but is grateful she can't, in a way. "But, sometimes, I believe, if my worth is as high as most believed...why did so many of them have to die before I realized it myself?"

And that's what hurts the most.

She had been just a girl, a puppet in her mother's plot, a beacon of hope with little light of her own, and in the final battle, it took losing _him_ to kill _her_. She lost all mind and reason when her hands cradled his body and she saw Erica fall after, then Jack, and Kyle was the last survivor – the only one who could attest to the bloodbath that came after Lisa gave into her true self and the only who could explain why she would be unable to greet people, personally, until her skin was placed on her again. Marcus had to bring Lars in to keep the military from going all gun-ho on them so that he could attest to what happened – after all, it's not like Kyle was someone the government was going to believe.

After that, Lisa had not been given a chance to grieve; public apologies, meeting with the United Nations, overseeing facilities being taken down, combing the land for stray visitors and coordinating with Lars so that the _peaceful _visitors – Amy now included in the fold – would be allowed to stay on Earth, hidden.

She feels his hand on her shoulder, but she doesn't meet his eyes.

"We all die, sooner or later. They knew what they were doing. They died for what they believed in. They believed in Anna needing to die, and she did. They believed in you becoming queen, and you are. Make sure it stays that way."

She knows that's not an order or a threat, but his way of saying that he has faith, like they had faith, and his hope that her faith in herself doesn't waver.

She won't let it.

They're already lightyears away and the ship seems alien – ironic – to her. Marcus took care of overseeing every repair on the ship while she had been on Earth – she trusted him enough for that. She feels like she had been gone forever.

It looks the same – Visitors aren't really into redecorating – but it doesn't _fee l_that way.

She sighs, looking into the darkness of space, enjoying the rare moment of silence she's been allowed since...well, since _everything_.

She hears the doors slide behind her and sighs, knowing only Marcus could open the doors to her chambers without her consent. Him and Joshua, but...Joshua is...

"Lisa."

Her blood runs cold and she turns so fast, she barely stops the movement, eyes wide, mouth open, "Joshua?"

It's him – exactly the same – labcoat, lips tight, eyes kind and smile soft, but there.

"H-how?"

"Marcus." He answers, simply, hands behind his back, "It's the second time he's brought me back." She remembers that. "Though, I must say, I like this time best."

She doesn't wait for any more explanations – doesn't need them, doesn't _care_– and simply walks toward him and throws her arms around his neck, holding him as close to her as she can, not caring what it might mean or look like or feel like, because he's alive, she didn't lose him – her friend, her most trusted companion and the one who believed in her before anyone else.

_Her _Joshua.

She'll think about what Marcus' secret means _later_– although the thought of him wanting to surprise her lingers as an impossibility...unless...unless Marcus found away to show a glimpse of humanity after all.

Joshua's hands are caressing circles on her back and she finds that she enjoys this – enjoys being human, of keeping this appearance, and feeling these emotions.

When she looks up, he's ready to meet her eyes, his eyes tender, and she thinks – _she knows _– that he has a soul.

She can see it in his eyes and as she kisses him – without thought or warning – and he kisses her back – surprised, but with little hesitance – she knows that Joshua's soul is something worth believing.

Something worthy of hope.


End file.
